Unsettled dilemma for Newmarket

Tuesday

Dec 11, 2012 at 3:15 AM

Newmarket school districts future for its facilities and students remains an unsettled dilemma, causing anxiety for everyone concerned.

While no one individual (myself included) has all the answers, I am confident the school districts current approach and methods of solving this dilemma, have to this point, been wrong headed, causing more anxiety than results.

Amidst all that has already taken place, including the needless wasteful spending of millions of dollars on purchasing land for a new school etc., I believe there yet remains an opportunity that will both satisfy the educational needs of Newmarket students for decades to come, and also reduce the increase tax burden current proposals will present.

First, demand the best education possible for your high school students. This would be to tuition them out of district where they will enjoy greater educational opportunities.

Staffing and maintaining a high school for 220-300 students, even if it is only part of a larger school, is not cost effective and restricts educational opportunities for the students; additionally, the district can save millions through tuition agreements for these students.

Look at Barrington as an example: though tuition agreements, students there currently enjoy three choices of where to attend high school: Dover, Oyster River, or Coe Brown, and for less money than if Barrington were to build, staff and maintain their own high school.

Newmarket students could enjoy similar opportunities if you demand it. Portsmouth, Epping, and Oyster River may all be willing to accept 80-100 students each, if this were an option under consideration.

Second, build a new K-8 school on the newly purchased former Carpenter property and sell the other two properties applying the proceeds to lowering the costs of the new school.

This action is reasonable due to all the money residents have already spent and because research has determined a k-8 school is best for students.

Newmarket residents certainly must be aware by now, that even if a new Jr. / Sr. High school is built, it will not be long before they are asked to pay for a new elementary school; it’s inevitable.

The current idea being contemplated by the powers that be to build a new cooperative middle school with Oyster River on the former Carpenter property requiring students from Lee, Madbury and Durham to be bussed all the way to Newmarket is ludicrous; do not allow this to happen.

Once the new k-8 elementary school is built and high school students tuition out, leaving Newmarket a one school town, eliminate the superintendent’s office and staff.

Hire a superintendent / principal to run the school or hire a part time superintendent; either way, you save money.

Whether my ideas for Newmarkets educational future are plausible or desirable by the residents I do not know; what I do know is if the residents do not take action and soon, the current proposals based upon deception and misinformation will become a reality, and will result in unsustainable tax burdens for the residents.